Posts Tagged ‘Joe Hart’

In a roller-coaster encounter in Kiev, England managed to battle back from 2-1 down to win 3-2 and in doing so, knocking Erik Hamren’s side out with their first ever competitive defeat of Sweden. England now just need a point from Tuesday’s game with co-hosts Ukraine to progress from Group D after a battling comeback led by the irrepressible Theo Walcott.

Both teams go into their second game of Euro 2012 needing a win after dropping points in their opening matches and the pressure is on to deliver the win that will be vital in progressing from what is shaping up to be a very tight group. With both teams coming off different results, the Swedes unexpected loss to Ukraine whilst England got a largely unexpected point from a hugely disciplined performance against France, it is difficult to predict how they will differ in preparations to a game that could, in the case of Sweden especially, see them eliminated.

England did enough to stifle a gifted French team to ensure a stalemate in the opening match of Group D, with a point a fair reflection for a match that was tightly contested and saw impasse for long periods. Joleon Lescott headed England in front on the half-hour mark only to see Samir Nasri slip the ball through a ruck of bodies in the English box 9 minutes later. Both teams seemed happier to draw the game as the second half wore on and both camps will be happy with a point.

After all the well-documented problems England have experienced with injuries going into the tournament, it is France who approach Monday’s game in Donetsk with a few selection problems whilst England have all 23 players who made it to the tournament available. Blasé Matuidi missed last Tuesday night’s rout of Estonia with a thigh injury but he was likely to be a squad player, so the ankle injury Arsenal target Yann M’Villa picked up against Serbia remains Laurent Blanc’s only real injury problem. Alliou Diarra is expected to fill in for him alongside Newcastle’s Yohann Cabaye.